COMA

Description

Artillery

Artillery is one of the three main branches of an ARMY, along with the INFANTRY and the CAVALRY. Artillery refers both to the personnel who transport and serve its weapons and to the weapons themselves. Traditionally, artillery weapons include larger firearms such as guns, HOWITZERS, MORTARS, and rocket launchers.

In the United States, artillery weapons are those that use ammunition larger than 25.4 mm (1 in), except for portable rocket launchers such as the BAZOOKA, the RECOILLESS RIFLE, and small mortars.

Early Artillery

The term artillery once applied to all weapons that used projectiles: the BOW AND ARROW, the slingshot, and the many variations of the CATAPULT. Soon after GUNPOWDER was introduced in Europe in the 13th century, machinery for utilizing it in warfare began to be devised. The earliest reference to artillery manufacture in Britain dates from the reign of Edward III (1327-77), when John Ryker, artillator regis ("the king's artillery man"), received sixpence a day for making spingards, a type of small CANNON. During the 15th century the French and the Italians attempted to make artillery more mobile by mounting some of the lighter pieces on carriages. A key technical development was the trunnion: two posts, one on either side of the barrel, fixed the tube to the mount and permitted it to be raised or lowered.

16th and 17th Centuries

During the 16th century the use and development of artillery increased. The younger duke of Ferrara used his artillery to destroy the Venetian fleet that had sailed up the Po River within a short distance of his capital in 1509. Henry VIII patronized the art of gun founding in England after being forced to import his cannon. He encouraged the development of hollow shells filled with powder. In 1537, the Italian mathematician Niccolo Tartaglia founded the science of BALLISTICS in his Nuova Scienzia, in which he described the trajectory of a cannonball.

The Swedish king Gustav II Adolf (r. 1611-32), an innovative military tactician, developed effective methods for using artillery on the battlefield. Gustavus limited his field artillery to nothing heavier than the 12-pounder, and he increased the ratio of cannon from one gun to six for every 1,000 infantry. He concentrated his firepower, frequently massing guns in strong batteries, and he utilized the distinctions among siege, field, and regimental artillery.

As the standing-army principle that began about 1500 came into general use, artillery became an organized arm of the military. Louis XIV of France raised a regiment of artillerymen in 1671 and established schools of artillery instruction.

18th Century

In 1715 Britain organized the Royal Regiment of Artillery, consisting of two permanent companies. The English scientist Benjamin Robins laid the groundwork for modern ordnance theory and practice in his New Principles of Gunnery (1742) and contributed to the introduction of carronades (short, light pieces useful on ships) in 1779.

During the Seven Years' War, Frederick the Great (1740-86) of Prussia developed a horse artillery to accompany his cavalry. Mobility was improved considerably by adding a second pair of wheels to the gun carriage or by placing a four-wheel wagon, with interchangeable wheels and iron axletrees, under the rear part of the gun carriage. Napoleon used his field artillery as a shock weapon, sending guns in front of his own infantry to fire grape and canister shot at the enemy infantry and literally blast holes in the opposing lines.

19th Century

Cannon began to change rapidly during the 19th century. Improvements included the rifled barrel, breech-loading mechanisms, smokeless powder, recoil-absorbing systems, and better metallurgy. During the U.S. Civil War, Parrott and Rodman guns were commonplace. The gunmaker R. P. Parrott made cannon by surrounding a central tube of cast iron or steel with wrought-iron or steel hoops. Thomas J. Rodman devised a method of casting barrels around a removable core that was cooled with water; each successive layer shrank and compressed the previous layer.

Alfred KRUPP of Germany produced a successful all-steel gun drilled out of a single block of cast metal, but he soon returned to the built-up hoop system. The hoops were replaced by countless turns of fine wire coiled under tension, creating wire-wound guns.

Development of Modern Artillery

The science of mechanics contributed to the development of a gun mount that could absorb recoil--the backward movement of the gun caused by firing the projectile. Compression cylinders were used to absorb the recoil, and heavy springs returned the barrel to its original position. Because the recoil force could also be harnessed to open the breech and eject the shell, the French developed a 75-mm cannon that was capable of firing 15 rounds a minute; its rapid fire compensated for its lighter projectiles.

The Germans developed heavier guns and howitzers, with longer ranges and larger bores. The largest used in World War I, "Big Bertha," was a 420-mm howitzer that fired an 800-kg (1,764-lb) shell about 10 km (6 mi).

To support infantry advances in World War I, the artillery developed a standard pattern. First, barrages were directed against entrenched positions and against barbed-wire entanglements; then, as the troops moved across open ground, the artillery laid down a "walking barrage" in front of them. The quantity of shells and guns needed for the artillery severely strained the industrial capacity of the belligerents.

During World War II the Germans developed a self-propelled howitzer of two calibers, 540 mm and 600 mm. They also had a railroad gun ("Gustave") of 800 mm, used only at the siege of Sebastopol, on the Russian front. Improvements in mobility resulted in such versatile guns as the 105-mm howitzer that the U.S. Army found so useful in World War II. The U.S. Army now has a 155-mm gun for long-range use, and a cannon-fired nuclear warhead.

Postwar developments have begun to erase the distinction between artillery and other forms of armament. Shoulder-carried recoilless rifles and ground-launched rockets and missiles are included within the definition of artillery, which is usually classified into three main groups: field artillery includes howitzers, mortars, and large recoilless weapons; antiaircraft artillery comprises cannon, medium-caliber automatic weapons, rockets, and SURFACE-TO-AIR MISSILES; antitank artillery includes ROCKETS AND MISSILES and cannon. Most U. S. artillery weapons are protected by an armored, wheeled- or track-mounted chasis, and are self-propelled. Towed howitzers are gradually falling into disuse.